26 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



Augiist 8, 1832. 



a disagreeable odor and taste to tlie milk and 

 butter ; but in many parts of Britain tbcy make 

 excellent butter from turnip-fed cows, by a plan 

 similar to the foregoing. Tlie bad taste of tlie 

 turnip consists in some volatile substance which 

 is evaporated by the hot water. Garlic is much 

 of the same nature, but probably more volatile. — 

 Biscuit, baked from garlicky flour, has no taste 

 of garlic ; but soft bread or pudding of the same 

 flour, retains it strongly, having both experienced 

 an imperfect evaporation." 



Should you think the above worth the insertion, 

 and would favor it with one, perhajis it might be 

 the means of giving instruction to somo who may 

 profit thereby. — Monthly J>lag. 



From the Transactions of the Essex Agricultural Society. 



DR SPOFFORD'S ESSAY ON IRRIGA- 

 TION. 



To the Secretary of the Essex Agricullural Society. 



I feel that some apology is due to the Trustees 

 for my long delay in fulfilling the appointment 

 with which I was honored by tlicin at their meet- 

 ing in September, 1830 : and have only to say 

 that it was occasioned by a desire to obtain from 

 a friend, then at a distance, some account of an 

 experiment on a larger scale than any other which 

 has come to my knowledge in this part of the 

 country. 



Some degree of knowledge of what constitutes 

 the food of plants, spcnis indispensable to any well 

 conducted system of producing them in the great- 

 est perfection ; and such knowledge seems most 

 likely to be obtained by minutely examining their 

 structure, and carefully observing the manner of 

 their growth. 



Plants constitute one of the great divisions of 

 organic life, and one formed orconsttutcd by sys- 

 tems of fibres and vessels, and endowed with cer- 

 tain powers and appetences which place them at 

 a greater remove above unorganized matter, than 

 they are below animal life ; and appropriate 

 nourishment is elaborated and a complete circula- 

 tion is carried on to the minutest extremity in a 

 manner extremely analogous to the circulation 

 which is carried on in the arteries and veins of the 

 most perfect animals ; and the apparent intelli- 

 gence with which plants seek for nourishment, 

 light, air, and support, appears in some instances 

 to bear a strong resemblance to perception and 

 knowledge: and the circulation of fluids in the 

 vessels of plants and animals apjiears to be carried 

 on much on the same principles, and is perfectly 

 involuntary in both. 



The indispensable agency of water, in constitu- 

 ting fhe fluids, and carrying on the circulation in 

 these systems of vessels, has been universally ac- 

 knowledged ; and could not be overlooked by the 

 most careless observer, while he sav,' innumerable 

 instances in which plants wither and dry for want 

 of this substance. But wlule this universal ason- 

 cy has been acknowledged, it is believed that a 

 very inferior oftice has been assigned to it, from 

 that whic'i it really performs. It has been con- 

 sidered as the mere vehicle which carried and de- 

 posited, the nutritious particles of other substan- 

 ces, while it in reality was coniriluning much the 

 largest portion of the actual noiuishiuent lo the 

 plants which annually clothe our earth in living 

 green. 



If this idea is correct, then he who possesses 

 water at his command with which to suppy his 



plants at pleasure, or who has a soil adapted to 

 attract and retain moisture, in suitable quantities, 

 possesses a mine of inexhaustible wealth, from 

 which he can draw at pleasure, in proportion to 

 his industry and his wants. 



In proof of the abstract principle that water 

 constitutes in a very large proportion the foqd of 

 plants, I may be allowed to mention one or two 

 accurate experiments of distinguished philosophers 

 upon the subject, which appear to me to be quite 

 decisive on the case. 



" Mr Boyle dried in an oven, a quantity of earth 

 proper for vegetation, and after carefully weigh- 

 ing it, planted in it the seed of a goiu-d : he wa- 

 tered it with pure rain water, and it produced a 

 plant which weighed 'fourteen pounds, though the 

 earth jjioducing it had suffered no sensible dimi- 

 nution." 



"A willow tree was planted by Van ITelnioDt 

 in a pot containing a thousand pounds of earth. 

 This plant was watered with distilled water or 

 pure rain water ; and the vessel so covered as to 

 exclude all solid matter. At the end of five years, 

 upon taking out the plant, he found it had increas- 

 ed in weight 119 pounds, though the earvli had 

 lost only two ounces of its original weight." 



The experiments of l\Ir Cavendish anti Dr 

 Priestly have suflicienlly proved that vegetables 

 have the power of decomposiuT water and con- 

 verting it into such fluids as they need for circu- 

 lation in their own vessels ; and that they elabo- 

 rate from this substance, such juices and fruits oa 

 they are by nature calctdated to produce. 



The great effect which is so frequently observ- 

 ed to follow the formation of ditches from the 

 road-sides on to mowing ground, is no doubt in 

 part to be attributed to the manure which is 

 thereby washed on to the ground, but is also in 

 part owing to the more copious supply of W'ater 

 which it thereby receives. 



That pure water is capable of producing simi- 

 lar effects I have the following experiments to 

 prove. 



Several years ago when resident with my fa- 

 ther on his farm at Rowley, I labored hard to di- 

 vert a stream, which fell into a miry swamp, from 

 its usual ' course across a piece of dry upland. 

 The stream was pure spring water, which issued 

 between the hills about fifty rods above, running 

 but just far enough to acquire tiie temperature of 

 the atmosphere, but without receiving any more 

 fertilizing quality than was obtained in passing 

 tbrougli a pasture, in a rocky channel ; the effect, 

 hoivever, was to double the quantity of grass. 

 The same stream I again diverted from its course 

 about forty rods below, after it had filtered through 

 a piece of swamp or meadow groimd, and with 

 the same effect: and again still lower down its 

 course, I succeeded in turning it on to a piece of 

 high peat meadow which had usually produced 

 but very little of anything, and the effect was that 

 more than double of the quantity of grass was 

 produced, and that of a much better quality. I 

 was led to this latter experiment by observing that 

 a strip of nieado^v which natiirally received the 

 water of this run, and over which it spread for 

 several rods in width without any particular chan- 

 nel, was annually much more productive than any 

 other part of the meadow. 



But the best experiment, and on the largest 

 scale of any which I have known, was made by 

 my late father-in-law, Dea. Eleazer Spofford, then 

 resident at Jaffrey, N. H. A letter from Rev. 



Luke A. Spofford, in answer to my intfiiiry ou 

 this subject, observes : "My father commenced 

 the experiment as early as the year 1800, and con- 

 tinued it till 18'20, or to the timo when he sold his 

 farm. The last ten years of this time he flashed 

 perhaps twenty acres ; and it jiroduced I should 

 think twice as much in comnion seasons, and 

 three times as nmch in dry seasons, as it would 

 have done without watering. This land would 

 hold out to yield a good crop twice as long as 

 other land OC the same quality" — (that is, I pre- 

 sume, without flowing.) " In dry w-eather he wa- 

 tered it every night — and the produce was good, 

 veni s"oorf." . 



1 ;.m acquainted with the lot of land which was 

 the subject of this experiment. It is a northern 

 declivity, and rather a light and sandy soil, on the 

 eastern bank of Contookook river ; and the water 

 used was that of the river — about one mile below 

 its tbrmation by the junction of two streams, one 

 from a large pond of several hundred acres in 

 Rindgp, and the other a mountain stream, formed 

 by innumerable springs issuing from the skirts of 

 the Monadnock. 



From the foregoing premises may we not con- 

 clude that water perforins a more important office 

 in the growth and formation of ))lauts than has 

 generally been supposed — and that it not only 

 serves to convey nourishment, but that it is itself 

 elaborated into nomishmcnt, and thereby consti- 

 tutes the solid substance ; and wo may further 

 conclude, that every farmer should survey his 

 premises and turn those streams which now are 

 often useless or hurtful, on to lands where they 

 U'C capable of diffusing fertility, abundance, and 

 veahli. 



It a|ipears further that the iiiimnnse fertility of 

 Egypt is not so much owing to the alluvial ile- 

 posit, brought down by the annual inundation, av 

 to :he canals and reservoirs in which the waters 

 art retained, to be spread over the lands during the 

 suficeeding drought, at the will of the cultiva- 

 tot 



[f, according to the experiments of Boyle and 

 Van Hehnont, almost the whole food of plants is 

 derived from water, then the principal use of the 

 vanous manures is to attract moisture and stiinu- 

 hiw the roots of plants to absorb and elaborate it : 

 anJ we have also reason to think that lands are 

 nuieh more injured and impoverished by naked 

 exposure to heat and wind, and washing by water 

 thatrunsoff and is lost, than it is by producing 

 abundant crops. 



In the present slate of population, nothing 

 more couhl be expected or desired than tliat every 

 fiirtne; should make use of such means as the 

 small streams in his vicinity may afford ; but in a 

 densely i)ropled country, like Egypt in former 

 ages, or China at present, it should doubtless be 

 one of die first enterprises of a good government, 

 to take our large rivers above their falls and turn 

 them oiT into canals for the benefit of agricuUure. 

 JEREMIAH SPOFFORD. 



To preserve steel from rust. — Take some melted 

 virgin wax, and rub it over the article to be pre- 

 served. When dry, warm the article again so as 

 to get off the wax, and rub it with a dry cloth un- 

 tirthe former polish is restored. By this means 

 all the pores of the metal are filled up without in- 

 jury to the appearance, and rust will not attack it 

 unless it is very carelessly exposed to constant hu- 

 midity.— /owniaZ des Connaissances UsueUcs. 



